Kouha is not permitted to start training until her stab wounds scar over, so instead, she's escorted back to the remains of her village to retrieve a handful of her possessions.
It takes days to get back, making Kouha realize just how remote the Mountain Estate is. The two Kakushi who were assigned to escort her, a man named Yarkov and woman named Himiko, are swordsmen too, taking down the one demon they encounter without much trouble. Coming upon her village is a different matter, however.
There wasn't much of anything left, really.
Her village and the surrounding forest had been reduced to nothing but a charred smear in the landscape, her house merely a blackened skeleton of what it used to be. She hesitates by the scorched path, dread and grief laying heavy on her shoulders.
She couldn't move. Kouha almost can't connect her home to this collection of charred logs and stone. The ghost of her home, her family looking out windows and milling about in the yard flash behind her eyes, making them blurry and wet as reality strips her of her innards.
Hearing Yarkov and Himiko stepping up behind her finally puts her feet into action, carrying her fragile, hollowed out form forward one little step at a time. Just making it through the front yard without breaking down and crying was hard, hands shaking and breath stuttering. She couldn't bring herself to raise her head, gaze low as she carefully stepped through the charred rubble of her house.
She purposefully avoided the ash mounds in the shrine.
She avoided revealing herself to the people milling about the village remnants, too. She doesn't even know if they know she's alive.
Would the villagers try to make her stay with them? Would they ask for her help now that they (likely) know about her powers? Would they be mad that she's leaving? Glad?
For some reason, she feels guilty about leaving behind what's left.
She's basically abandoning the few remaining people she grew to (cautiously) care for. Is she a bad person for doing this? For going on a journey for revenge? Or is it justice?
... Repentance..?
The little toddler from the Tonada's who followed her around on wobbly legs, the Suicha sisters who taught her how to cook deserts, an old man who complains to her so much she hadn't even gotten his name... She'll probably never see them again...
Like Miya said, she could die out there, fighting demons... No one but the corps would know. No, not even the corps, just Oyakata and Himejima. The two Kakushi with her will forget about her after they leave, never to see her again.
Oyakata... He says he doesn't want anyone to know that she exists, unless they absolutely need to. Perhaps that's why Himiko stayed back to keep an eye out by the trail head. Not for demons, but for snooping people. For the curious village she's leaving behind.
It's... Conflicting. She'll be uprooting herself again, but what could she hope to achieve here? She can use her powers for something even greater than helping the dead rest. She can help prevent more burning villages, She could stop more dead, burned, and gone families she'll never see again.
Maybe she can come back to protect this village one day. Maybe under a new name, as a different person.
Pulling herself from her storm of thoughts, Kouha stares at the stone safe standing alone in the ashes of what used to be her parent's room. Using the dagger Toshinori had left her, Kouha pries it open.
Brushing away wisps of charred paper, Kouha collects the melted remains of her mother's jewelry, placing the metal chunks into a borrowed bag. The valuable metals can be sold for emergencies.
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Eat Your Heart Out | Kimetsu no Yaiba | Demon Slayer
Fanfiction[Hiatus Ending Soon!] Kouha has done a lot to get to where she is now. Like her mother, Kouha's arms grow scarred with the cost of her powers. Like her father, her body grows rough and sturdy in order to protect and hunt for her family. Like her lat...
